Noah Pozner's Uncle Says Family Speaking With White House On Guns

By MATTHEW KAUFFMAN, mkauffman@courant.comThe Hartford Courant

The uncle of one of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting blamed "unintended miscommunication" for the failure of the White House to seek his family's input in the development of proposals to reduce gun violence.

Alexis Haller said Friday that he has been in touch with Vice President Joe Biden's office, which assured him Biden is interested in hearing the views of Haller's sister, Veronique Pozner. Pozner is the mother of Noah Pozner, the youngest victim of the Dec. 14 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Biden is leading a White House task force on gun violence, formed in response to the Sandy Hook shooting.

Haller had earlier issued a statement on his sister's behalf in which she criticized the White House's lack of contact. "As the mother of a 6-year-old victim of a cold-blooded massacre of school children, I am puzzled and disappointed by the fact that I have had no information or opportunity to be heard regarding the upcoming legislative proposal in Washington," she said in the statement.

But Biden's office subsequently reached out to Haller and said the White House had been led to believe the families were not ready to speak.

"Based upon our conversations with the vice president's office, it is possible that people are purporting to represent all of the families, when they don't," Haller, who lives in Washington state, said by telephone Friday.

He declined to elaborate, but said a line of communications was now open between his family and the White House. "My sister and I intend to speak with the vice president's office moving forward and we feel we now have a means to do so," he said.

One month after the devastating shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, a group of local residents who formed "Newtown United" plan to unveil a national grass-roots initiative aimed at reducing gun violence with the goal of "preventing similar tragedies from ever taking place again."